Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Hmmmm, bit late. I hope that's not bad. They sometimes deliberately do it late because they don't think the scores will be helpful in promoting it.

@Dezzy If you look through the reviews for major Switch releases, you‘ll see most of them weren‘t published one or two days before the release. Odyssey‘s was released on October 26th for example. I wouldn‘t worry too much about it. Also, Famitsu gave XC2 35/40 (9/9/8/9) as seen in https://gematsu.com/2017/11/famitsu-review-scores-issue-1512. Not one to trust or even care too much about what Famitsu scores a game but here you go (Sonic Forces got the same score btw )

I'm one of those sticking to english. I really like most dubs to be honest, even though it seems quite an unpopular opinion... seems like I'll be doing it for xenoblade 2 as well from what I know for now.

This sounds like you cite the score of Odyssey. Of course, 35/40 is Famitsu's score of XC2 and more or less the same score they gave XC1 and XCX.

@Chandlero Made it clearer that I was referring to Xenoblade.

I stick to english too. I do enough reading with books. Games can be listening time.

Going JP dub w/ subs. My only problem with the ENG dub is Pyra's voice IMO sounds too mature which doesn't really match the character. And some characters sound a bit cringy. Good thing I won't have to deal with those if I don't understand the language to begin with That said I have no real problems with the ENG dub in general and I might switch between the two in a separate playthrough just to compare.
Also, the JP dub fits perfectly with the facial animation which I think is a plus. And I'm not being a "weeb" or anything since some people default to that argument when you choose JP over ENG. Annoying really.

@Zyph Nia's english voice actress sounds about 20 years older than the character looks. Then again, the Japanese version also has... this...

Oldest looking lady in the game gets the squeakiest voice. I don't get it.

@Ralizah Yeah that one's pretty weird

@Snaplocket I mean, they should be lines from the game, right? So they just stuck in prerecorded lines without context, like in the Japanese trailer. I'm assuming the same is true for the "Take thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis!" scene in the E3 trailer.

Also, I'm guessing there are at least 5+ drivers in the game. Rex, Nia, Tora, Zeke, and Pandoria at least.

Gotta say, Tora seems like the least obnoxious Nopon in the series to date. I'd prefer the stupid things were taken out altogether, but at least he's a (huge) step up from Tatsu and funnier than the one in the original XC.

@Snaplocket I don't know, "It's just... she gave half of her life to save mine" doesn't sound too unnatural to me. I don't know about the actual accuracy of the dialogue in comparison to the original, but so far it seems like a decent localization. Nia sounds a bit old to me, but perhaps that's just my Americentric bias reacting weirdly to a Welsh accent, something I don't often hear.

@Snaplocket If you read my comment. I said Pyra and Rex are awful. The rest are doable.

this seems typical of Japanese culture. It doesn't always take itself too seriously. I wonder if this is I've of those times where it's just tongue in cheek fun?

In contrast, the western vocals are usually really good in my opinion, so I expect to use those exclusively. As usual.

Meanwhile, aside from the subs v dubs or "This sounds off but I have no context for the line" and the now rampant "This game looks artistically downgraded into a generic anime game and its objectively bad" I see on Twitter....

The game part looks great.

@YummyHappyPills looool yes it does:) though the screenshots and music so far make me drool!

It does look like an awesome game.

@Tsurii Regarding the lip syncing in games, when people complain I always ask them one question:

"Do you want to be the one who sits and reanimates the entirety of a game this big frame by frame to match new dialogue that can be re-recorded at a moment's notice? If yes, by all means hop to it."

@Snaplocket Yes. But the Japanese dialogue was recorded earlier in development, as it had to be completed before localisation can begin (Otherwise how do you know the full script to translate?).

This then raises the question. Sure, it was animated by the Japanese developers, for the Japanese voice actors, because the game is made in Japan. Duh. The same would be true of any nation. Call of Duty isn't lip synced for Japan!

And then comes the other thing, yeah, they could have done it. And again for French. And German. Spanish. Italian. Latin American. Chinese. South Korean.

Do you have that much time and resources and patience? If you do I'm sure they'd let you do it. The cutscenes would have been synced to the Japanese voices from the start, as all the scene choreography, movements, and script, would have been done in Japan, by the Japanese, for the Japanese cast. Go ahead. Expect them to reanimate an entire game.

@Snaplocket "Square Enix does and it never hurts them"

Have you seen their sales expectations and how it long it takes them to make ANYTHING?

@Tsurii It doesn't bother me either, because I have reasonable expectations of game development.

@Snaplocket Xenoblade 2 delayed to 2027 for the New New Nintendo Switch!

Lip syncing is the last thing I need in games.. Better non-sync lips than voices that are forced to act to the lips.